Wartime Kiss:Visions of the Moment in the 1940sAlexander Nemerov

"This stunning book defies easy categorization. . . . [A] personal meditation on why we love art and the movies and the enduring power of popular culture to transcend its own moment in time. . . . Nemerov does the world, or at least avid film fans, a great service. . . . Indeed, the book flows in time like a beautifully made movie. . . . Reading Wartime Kiss is something akin to flying."--Farisa Khalid, PopMatters

"In this engagingly written, even poetic book, Nemerov views selected images from films and photographs of the 1940s. . . . Through the experience of reading this extraordinary historical meditation, students will learn how they can engage, and engage others, in pursuing a personal and social understanding of history."--Choice

"Wartime Kiss is a fascinating introduction to the underlying symbolism, planned and unplanned, of the war. It encourages the reader to look with fresh eyes at old movies and photo stills hidden in private albums or stuffed away in drawers."--Stephen Williams, H-Net Reviews

ADDITIONAL ENDORSEMENTS:

"Alexander Nemerov's incandescent new book elucidates moments of being--an electrifying kiss, a lost snapshot of a dreamy Olivia de Havilland and Jimmy Stewart, the shimmery arc of a swimmer on the cover of Life magazine--and through them reveals and deciphers the invisible writing of lost time. A mesmerizing meditation by one of our most brilliant and original thinkers."--Cynthia Zarin, author of An Enlarged Heart: A Personal History

"Wartime Kiss creates an exhilarating high from a seductively humble set of connections with the strange, fragmentary pictures of the past that happen to move us. It is a luminous and deeply felt meditation on pursuing history as a poetic flight."--Elisa Tamarkin, University of California, Berkeley

"Filled with personal self-reflection and insightful analysis of photographs and films, this eloquent book is ultimately a meditation on how we know and write history. Nemerov is a wonderful stylist and he is extraordinarily adept at picking out telling details and mining them for all they are worth. Wartime Kiss is a pleasure to read."--Cécile Whiting, University of California, Irvine